Weird Wednesday - Horses with Hair-Extensions

Julian hit on the idea of experimenting with horses' hair during a chat with a fellow advertising pal.

The idea for these images came from a discussion with a friend who said, 'Hey wouldn't it be fun to shoot horses with big hair?'

says Sydney-born Julian, 36.

Stylist Acacio da Silva and photographer Julian Wolkenstein made Harmony the horse look like a tourist in the Caribbean

It is important to do personal projects just for fun, not to sell anything, but just to remind you why you make images, but mostly, and simply, to make you smile.

Acting on the discussion, Julian, who usually works to a specific client brief, decided to explore this personal project to its full potential, resulting in these striking and unforgettable images.

Putting the project into motion, Julian teamed up with prominent hair-stylist Acacio da Silva to whip the horses into shape.

Misty the horse actually appears to be giving the camera a flirtatious grin as she enjoys her new flowing curls

Each horse took around four hours to groom, with hair extensions being added by Acacio, and then when they were presented in front of the camera's and lights they would shake their heads, give a neigh and then ruffle up their hair,

said Julian - with a somewhat forced grin.

To get them just right, with their hair all set and standing to attention was a bit of a battle. But the horses loved the grooming. The lights and camera, well, they were less taken with that.

At first, Julian thought the shoot would be a quick affair.

We initially thought how hard can this be? A couple of hours on each one,

he said.

Well, we figured out pretty quickly on a test day that it was a major undertaking. Apart from casting horses and preparation work which took a few months, each horse took a full day to shoot.

Even for a seasoned pro, such as Julian, there were hitches to his horse hair project.

Florence the horse looks demure with her fringe and ginger mane

I tend to be drawn to projects where just in trying to describe and trying to explain the concept to all the crew and the people who supplied the horses was fascinating ,

says Julian.

The pictures were taken three years ago in England, but since Wolkenstein did them strictly for fun, it took time for them to hit the Web and longer still for people to discover them.